Economy
In 2016, one in every two people (of all ages) in the West has a job. In 2084, this is down to one in every ten. Approximately 92% of all GDP arises from investments and capital exclusively – labour has virtually no value as a factor of production. This is entirely due to automation. While every sector has been largely automated, the jobs that remain are in the following areas:- · Education · Medical & Mental Health · Scientists · Lawyers · Personal Service Providers · Entertainers · Computer Programmers · Artisanal Production These productive individuals comprise a further 9.9% of the population and are referred to as the Employed. All of them are members of major corporations. They live in the Towers, the vast monolith-like habitations of the developed world. The top 0.1% of the global population possesses 96% of global wealth – these uber-rich tend to be referred to as the Captains of Industry and live in the Clouds at the top of the city’s vast towers, above the smog and filth. Of the remaining 90%, 50% qualifies for universal basic income (UBI) and essential housing. They are not educated beyond basic literacy and numeracy. It is enough to avoid starvation and death from exposure, but nothing more. These people are called the Dependents and live in the less salubrious parts of the Towers. 30% of the total does not receive UBI directly or from family who do, and are called the Ineligible. They subsist on crime and the black market or are consigned to poverty and death in the toxic Warrens at the bases of the Towers, or to flee beyond the Orbital to the inhospitable waste of the English countryside. The remaining 10% of the population are inmates – prisoners found guilty of one of a multitude of crimes. Although popularly depicted as a drain on society who do not know how lucky they are, incarcerated to remove ‘excess population’. Beyond the extension of UBI, all Corporations also extend voluntary charity to citizens of Good Standing. This Good Standing may be achieved through recommendation by a citizen with Upvote Privilege in return for various services rendered, or by recognised Volunteering. This may be for military service, medical experimentation, organ donation to the 9.9%, labour in areas where valuable machines could be endangered, political mobilisation, informing on others or population management via sterilisation, identification of illegal immigrants, or any one of a host of other tasks. This economic structure is still relatively recent. As the effects of climate change hit in the middle of the century, an increasingly urban human population began to see growth tail off. As economic growth had been heavily driven by growth in population and globalisation, both of which had reached their zenith, capitalism seemed to hit a major crisis. By this time, nearly every country owed many times its GDP in debt, and when countries started defaulting, national economies and banks started dropping like flies. This was the Global Market Adjustment of 2063. Those corporations that did survive stepped in to buy up assets and dead companies very cheaply, amassing vast market share. The last major costs of representative democracies – healthcare and a reliable social safety net – fell by the wayside entirely. Economic growth could now only be achieved by efficiency and cost minimisation, which drove the final stage of automation, where ‘dumb’ AI replaced even technical and white-collar jobs, and a surge in recycling. Capitalism retooled itself to no longer treat the poor as a customer base, but as a liability to slowly offload, ensured the labour that could not be automated was loyal and controlled, and focused on the rich selling unnecessary things to the rich. Virtually everything has been privatised. While the Armed Forces are technically still under state control, they are deployed almost exclusively to prevent illegal immigration and are 80% drones or private security contractors. Health services and fire services have been privatised. The Police and Ministry of Justice, theoretically, have not, but the former consists primarily of Patrol Drones with only a smattering of human detectives. Monopolies are fairly common, as is price gouging. Everything is covered with advertisements, which can only be avoided for a price. Water and basic food are expensive, and housing is an investment instead of a basic need – few of the Employed can afford to own houses, so they rent. Public transportation exists, but is privatised. There are no flying cars, though there are bullet trains. Cars exist but are – except for a few ostentatious machines for the rich – electric and automatically-driven. However, many workers walk or bike, and just as many live in the same Towers in which they work – sometimes on the same floor. Few ever ascend above the smog, or descend to street level. While national currencies are still traded and used – e.g. pounds sterling – most companies trade in cryptocurrencies – SQN (sequin – sina qua non), BitCoin, Etherium, Ingot, Ripple, LiteCoin. Some of the corporations running now have been around for more than a century - British Airways, HSBC, Toyota, IBM, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Samsung, McDonalds. Some are mergers of older companies - Warner Universal, Volkswagen BMW, Raytheon United. Royal Mail, the National Health Corporation and the British Broadcasting Company are all privatised manifestations of their former selves. But many big companies - Synbiosis, British Fusion, DroneBuilt, Pygmalion, OnBoard - have cropped up in the last couple of decades, after the Big Crash wiped out virtually all small-to-medium and around half of all large and multinational companies.